batcheller



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

L. B. BATCHELLER, OF ARLINGTON, VERMONT, ASSIGNOR TO WEST, CANFIELD ANDCO.

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING WOODEN WASHBOARDS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 18,171, dated September 8, 1857.

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, L. B. BATGHELLER, of

Arlington, in the county of Bennington and State of Vermont, haveinvented a new and Improved Method of Fluting or Grooving Washboards;and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exactdescription thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawingsand to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention consists in Y prpviding a strong rect-angularframe of suitable. dimensions and having a firm bedpiece attached to therear end o-f the frame, and resting on a rocker in front, by which theend may be raised to accommodate the thickness of the board to be luted.A carriage, to the .face of which, the blank, or board to be grooved, isclamped, slides longitudinally on the face of the bedpiece under aVrevolving cylinder, which extends from side to side of the frame, whichcylinder is provided with cutters or chisels so constructed and arrangedas to cut the desired number of grooves at one operation, the

carriage'being drawn under the cylinder by a rackand pinion at the rearend of the Y frame. The grooving being performed, the

yII,'a plan of the top of the machine, with the fluting cylinder shownonly in dotted lines, the better to show the several appendagesdesignated by letters; Fig. III, vertical sections of the lutingcylinder, showing the manner of connecting the sections, and setting thechisels, or cutters in their proper position.

F, a strong rectangular frame of suitable height and dimensions to whichthe several appendages are connected; B, the bed piece-a substantialplank-about the width of the wash board-attached to the rear end of theframe, and resting at the front end, on the rocker fr, by rocking whichlaterally it is raised to accommodate any thickness of board to beiuted; S, the slide a plank of suitable dimensions, tted to slide on thebedpiece, longitudinally, on ways, at the rear end of which the rack R,is attached by which it is drawn under the fluting or grooving cylinderC; R, the rack, attached to the rear end of the slide S, which it drawsback under the cylinder, by the action of the pinion P; L, the lever,which, at the' front end, is bent down at right angles resting on a hubatthe right hand end of the rocker r, and extending back as far as thepinion P, where it is bent horizontally atright angles, to raise thepinion P, from the rack, the fulcrum of the lever being attached to theinside of the gable end g; 1', the rocker-a half cylinder-on the frontside, a little above the frame-the flat side up-on which the fr'ont endof the bed piece rests, and being turned by an arm, brings the face ofthe blank (of whatever thickness) up to the desired distance from theperiphery of the cylinder C; P, the pinion-near the rear end of theframe-is revolved by a cross band from the pulley on the shaft of thecylinder and acts on the rack to draw the slide under the cylinder, andis raised by the lever L, from the rack, so that the slide may be movedback to its starting point by hand; b, the ratch on the left end of therocker, having an arm to turn it with the rocker, so as to raise theblank, clamped to the face of the slide, up to the cutters o, where itis held during the operation of fluting; d, the detent acting on theratch to hold the rocker in place, having an arm, rising at right anglesabove the pivot on which it turns and being connected to the hook l.,which extends back under the cylinder and takes hold of the stop a., inthe side of the slide s, t0 arrest its course back; z., the hookattached to the arm, or angle of the detent, and extending back takeshold of the stop a, which in effect stops the slide,

raises the detent from the ratch, drops downl the slide and luted boardfrom the cylinder, drops down the angle of the lever L, into the slot inthe hub, by which the pinion is raised from the rack, and the slideliberated, so as to be drawn back to its starting point by hand; a, thestop in t-he edge of the slide, which in its course takes hold of thehook, and raises the detent from the ratch; 0, the cross bar, supportedon elastic studs e, standing on the edges of the gable ends g, acrossand directly over the middle of the blank, onto which it is pressed bythe action of the treadle T, to take out the warp (if any) in the blankbefore being confined by the beveled cleat a, and screw, to the slide e,the elastic studs on which the cross bar is suspended; T, the treadleresting on a bar which is attached, by connecting rods, on the sides ofthe slide, to the cross bar 0, above which is thereby brought to bear onthe blank; 7c, the beveled cleat extending acro-ss the front end of theslide, to which'it is at-tached, by bolts, which move laterally inslots, by the frontscrew n, by which it is borne against t-he end of theblank when pressed level, by the treadle, to confine it firmly to theslide for fl-uting; n, the front screw by which the cleat 7c, is movedto confine the blank to the slide; m, the fulcrum to the lever L, on theinside of the gable end g; u, the hub on the end of the rocker, having aslot in the upper side, into which the armor angle at the front end ofthe lever L, drops, by which the pinion is raised from the rack; f, thefender-a wide board extending across the frame in front of the flutingcylinder C, to defend the work and workmen from the chips thrown fromthe cutters; H, the rigger or drum at the end of the shaft, of thecylinder, by which the cylinder is rotated; C, the fluting cylinder,composed of a large cylindrical shaft extending across the frame, andrevolving at a proper distance above the face of the slide S, inbearings at the top of the gable end g, and of annular sections, whichencircle the shaft, equal in number to onehalf the flutes or grooves, tobe cut in the board; fw, the annular sections (see Fig. III) fitted toencircle the shaft of the fluting cylinder (of which they make acomponent part) equal to one-half the number of grooves to be cut in theface of the board, having deep mortises cutfin their sides in which thecutters are confined by screw bolts, and having holes to receive theheads and points of the bolts projecting from the sides of the adjoiningsections and fitted and confined in their proper order on the shaft by akey; o, the cutters-in number equal to the iutes to be cut of properform and length, and embedded in deep mortises, one on each side of thesections w, tangent to the periphery of the shaft of the cylinder C, andare conned by screw bolts so as to project about one inch from itssurface, and of a width to leave no space untouched between theadjoining cutter, and arranged in about six rows lengthwise and sodistributed, on

the surface of the cylinder as to equalize their friction, having theiredges so fitted and arranged as to flute the face of the board, by theirunited agency into the desired form; N, abroad cutter at the end of thecylinder to plane the face of the soap box;'z, head and points of screwbolts projecting from the sides of adjoining sections; y, holes toreceive the heads and points of the projecting screw bolts; shallowInortises or grooves, in the sides of the sections, fitted and arrangedto receive that small portion of the cutters which project from theadjoining sections, extending on to the track of the cutterbox in order,and also adding firmness to the cylinder by interlocking and extendingthe cutters into two sections.

Operation: The several parts of the machine being arranged as hereinspecified,

Vand the cylinder C, put in motion and the blanks or board to be flutedcut to the proper dimensions is placed on` the slide S, and the warp,(if any) taken out by the action of the treadle T, on the cross bar O;it is confined to the face of the slide by pressing the screw a, againstthe cleat 7c. The front of the bedpiece is now raised by tilting theedge of the racks fr, so as to bring the face of the blank to thedesired distance from the periphery of the fluting cylinder, where it isheld by the detent d, and the short end or angle at the front end of thelever L, is raised onto the periphery of the hub u, by which the rearend is lowered down with the pinion P, which takes hold of the teeth ofthe rack R, and moves the slide back the length of the blank, bringingthe face of the blank into contact with the cutters which are soarranged as to flute, and finish the whole surface of the board bypassing once through under the cylinder. At this point of time thebackward motion of the slide is arrested by the stop a, taking hold ofthe rear end of the hook 71 by which the detent CZ, is raised from theratch b, the rocker r, turned back to a level, and the short arm, orangle of the front end of the lever, drops down into the slot in the hubu, raising the rear end of the lever, and wit-h it the pinion P, fromthe teeth of t-he rack R, thereby liberating the slide, so that it maybe drawn back, by hand, to its starting points, and the fiuted boardremoved from the slide.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Lett-ers Patent is-The machine, constructed, arranged and operated, substantially as setforth in this specification.

L. B. BATCHELLER. Witnesses:

Jol-IN HAs'rINcs, M. JUDsoN, FERNANDO WEST.

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